Reentrant vs. linear preferences

Joyful Uke

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I'm in the process of deciding which of 2 ukuleles to make reentrant, & will keep the other linear. While it's obviously something that is personal preference, it made me wonder if people tend to have a sound (brighter vs. more mellow, for example), or woods (koa vs, mahogany, for example) that they prefer for low g or high g.
 
I have all my tenors in low G, so that does doesn't tell you much.......or maybe it says a lot. Here is a story to maybe shed some light on ukes for low G. We have a friend who has a Koolau made from all koa. That person never cared much for the sound of it, was reentrant from day one. We convinced that person to string it low G. Very very very happy with it now, loves it. That uke needed more resonance, more bass, more volume and the low G did that.

I have had tenors with every imaginable wood combo strung in low G. Spruce, mahogany, cedar, redwood, koa tops, they all sound good to me in low G. Some people say certain ukes are too boomy in low G, I have never found one. You do have to adjust your playing technique if not familiar with low G, don't hit the 4th string so hard is all.
 
All my tenors are Low G
But I’m a classical guitarist who plays finger style chord melody songs
I believe if you are a Strummer and singer it doesn’t much matter
And of course have high G if you want your dog to have fleas !
Ron
 
I disagree with eyedoc I’m a strummer/singer and I prefer low G as singing without a bass note is kind of weird to me.
 
And of course have high G if you want your dog to have fleas !
Ron

I have 3 dogs, so no fleas wanted. :)

I play fingerstyle, which is why the 2 ukuleles in question are both low g. But I'm still curious about responses.
 
Some of you appear to be under the mistaken impression that the OP asked if you prefer a low G or high G on your ukes... ;)
 
Strings aren't expensive. Why not try each both ways and see if either shines more one way or the other? You didn't mention if they are same size or not. If one is smaller, I would default to making the smaller one re-entrant if you don't want to try them each in both tunings.
 
Some of you appear to be under the mistaken impression that the OP asked if you prefer a low G or high G on your ukes... ;)

I was thinking that too. Maybe I'll figure out a better way of phrasing the question, but I hope people can figure out what I'm asking for now. :)
 
I'm in the process of deciding which of 2 ukuleles to make reentrant, & will keep the other linear. While it's obviously something that is personal preference, it made me wonder if people tend to have a sound (brighter vs. more mellow, for example), or woods (koa vs, mahogany, for example) that they prefer for low g or high g.

For me, it depends on the sound profile of the specific instrument, as well as scale length.

Typically anything shorter than a tenor, for an unwound low-G the string will be too floppy and will sound 'tubby' as well as have very little volume in comparison to the other three strings, whether a 0.0358" or 0.0410" fluoro string or a 0.0444" nylon string, yes all UNWOUND.(all easily available as classical singles from Strings By mail)

The aforementioned characteristics also are more closely related to not having enough string tension on a scale length shorter than tenor.

Thus, WOUND strings are often used for a low-G on concert and soprano more often than UNwound strings.

Some wound strings in use for tenor might be an 0.030" and for concert an 0.033" and for soprano an 0.035" (all from standard classical guitar string single strings, easily available from 'Strings By Mail' or 'Strings And Beyond'), each of which will yield approx. 11-12 lbs of string tension on the respective scale lengths mentioned for each string diameter here.

I'm not going to re-open Pandora's Box for whether or not smaller bodies can effectively resonate a G3 note, nor am I going to debate the pros and cons of wound vs. unwound low-G, as both topics have been beaten to death here on UU in the past.

You can search and find those threads.

If you are deciding which of 2 different ukes to make re-entrant, that is a highly subjective personal choice. My best advice is to try them both, side-by-side tuned/strung that way and see which you like best. Whichever you decide is the correct answer. Nobody else can tell you your own preferences, that is something only you can answer.

It is a personal choice for each player. Experimentation is necessary to find the answer, there is simply no other way IMHO.
 
I will tell you what I do so that you can amass more data. I play long neck tenors. On my ukulele with denser wood (London plane) I use linear strings. On my spruce Kamaka, I use re-entrant strings...although I kind of cheat with the Kamaka. Since I mostly play blues-based Americana fingerstyle, I have tuned it down to CFAD so that the strings are more bendable and still tight enough to strum chords.
 
My preference is for low G on my solid wood ukes, & most of my laminates too - of those that are re entrant, they are laminate. :)

I use fluorocarbon strings on nearly everything, only one of my baris is not - & I use concert strings on all the tenor, concert & long necks that I own.

(My playing is mainly melodies, with the occassional 'strum & sing' for a Seasons entry.)
 
My other instruments are banjo and guitar. The first has the reentrant g and guitar is what it is. I moved to ukulele because of its happy sound as well as portability and affordability. IMHO the low G makes ukulele sound like a mini guitar and that is not why I play it - so even my wonderful tenor Kamaka has the reentrant g.

It is a personal choice so I leave it there.
 
I'm in the process of deciding which of 2 ukuleles to make reentrant, & will keep the other linear. While it's obviously something that is personal preference, it made me wonder if people tend to have a sound (brighter vs. more mellow, for example), or woods (koa vs, mahogany, for example) that they prefer for low g or high g.

Strings aren't expensive. Why not try each both ways and see if either shines more one way or the other? You didn't mention if they are same size or not. If one is smaller, I would default to making the smaller one re-entrant if you don't want to try them each in both tunings.

What Eddie said...what size/sizes do you have and what woods? I prefer high G overall myself, but have one concert cedar top with low G. Mahogany would probably be good for low G, as would spruce tops. I used to have low g on my Islander Acacia laminate and kind of think it sounded better than my cedar top...
 
What Eddie said...what size/sizes do you have and what woods? I prefer high G overall myself, but have one concert cedar top with low G. Mahogany would probably be good for low G, as would spruce tops. I used to have low g on my Islander Acacia laminate and kind of think it sounded better than my cedar top...

This is by no means a hard and fast rule, but I like to accentuate the characteristics of my ukes with my string choices as much as possible, so I have low G on my mellower ukes and high G on my brighter ukes. Of my 4 ukes, I have low G on my KPK acacia tenor and my Emil Bader milo concert, while I have high G on my Mele mango concert and Luna laminate soprano. My Mele came with a low G on it and I didn't like how it sounded at all. It's definitely much better with a high G.
 
I have only two ukes - mahogany tenor strung with aquila low G (red), and a koa concert strung reentrant with fluorocarbon. I pick and strum both, but have preferences for songs. For newer songs from the rock and pop genres (post 1960s) I prefer the low G, whereas for older music like from the 20s, swing, jazz, movie songs, etc I prefer the re-entrant.
 
I'm odd, I guess, owning several sopranos, concerts, tenors ....and anything that's come into my possession strung low G is promptly "corrected"
One of these days, I'll switch my baritone to reentrant too. I have a 22" scale tenor banjo I play a lot. It, too, is strung reentrant, with Nylgut strings.
I do a whole lot of fingerpicking and still prefer reentrant tuning. To my ears, it doesn't sound right or play right tuned linear.
 
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I have not been able to adjust to low G, even though I played guitar for years and play fingerstyle on the ukulele. It basically happened years ago when I was working through some of Jake's arrangements that I discovered how much an open high G is used and playing in G or C makes chord melodies so much easier without having to cover the G string playing up the neck.

It is almost like cheating and it does promote a degree of laziness, but this simple approach works for me. I am amazed how I can play the same chords with different melody notes for different songs and people don't seem to notice, especially if I alter the shape.

John
 
Back to the OP's question on tone... In my limited forays into the low G world, I have found there is no right woods or tone that lend itself to low G.

I tried low G on an overly bright tenor and the low G balanced out some of the brightness with more low end. It is a nice effect.

Low G on a tenor that already has a full sound just enhances the tone. I find it blends in very well and just adds more of it.

As already mentioned, strings are cheap, especially a single wound low G string and the only way to know what you like is to try it out on different ukes. A wound string should hopefully fit the nut of a high G without modification.

John
 
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Strings aren't expensive. Why not try each both ways and see if either shines more one way or the other? You didn't mention if they are same size or not. If one is smaller, I would default to making the smaller one re-entrant if you don't want to try them each in both tunings.

Ken sells sets with a high and low g, so you can try both high and low with the same string type.

http://www.kenmiddleton.co.uk/international/

They are at the bottom of the list.

Steve
 
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